Today's appointment

[freddiefraggles]

At least I was prepared for half of it. Today I saw Mr Singh who chatted about my ankle and the sort of things we could do with it to make it better. He said there were three possible operations I could have, which I will now list (with my own cunning headings) and try to describe (I was half expecting to need to make some diagrams for this, but I seem to have managed without, do tell me if something's not clear!):

1. Fusion - ironically, the procedure I used to think would be terrible and had just come around to thinking would be ok is actually not going to be possible due to there not being enough bone at the end of the tibia to fuse to the talus. Not a huge surprise but I did sing a bit of "10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife" in the back of my mind.
2. Gate-posts - the idea behind this one is to take 2 sections from my left fibula, remove the cementoma and put the pieces of bone into the resultant hole to prop up the tibia until it grows around a bit. This was described quickly so I may have gotten the wrong end of the stick, but that sounds about right.
3. Harry Potter Skele-Gro Potion - this is the one Mr Singh suggested would be the one to go for. It involves removing the lower portion of the tibia in its entirety, cutting the bone higher up and then moving it all down before encouraging the upper edges (which are healthy, normal bone) to grow back together again. This would require at least a year in a frame.

Now, there was only one glitch in all of this: Mr Singh is a Fusion surgeon, but his colleague Mr Calder is more of the other stuff sort of surgeon. So I've been referred to Mr Calder now, and will have to wait for another appointment letter from RNOH for him. Most likely this will be followed by some counselling along the lines of "Are you sure you're prepared for the annoyingness that is having a frame around your leg for a year or so?" (to which the answer is: if I can survive in a plaster cast for fifteen months, I'm sure I can survive a frame for twelve. You can scratch itches in frames!!) and only after that will I get an operation date (probably). Anyway, if it means it's the right consultant surgeon then that's fine, but I will confess to being slightly disappointed in the perceived further delay. Not hugely though, following the sorting out of my brain-meats after the last appointment, so that's alright.

And I've managed to fill the next couple of weeks with lots of things to keep me busy, so I'm sure the time will fly by and suddenly there'll be a letter on the doormat saying when the next one is!

Comments

[shewhostaples]

*hugs* They all sound dire. Poor Freddie.

[freddiefraggles]

Do they? I must've become de-sensitized to it all, I think they sound fascinating.